Over the past three years we have built an amazing partnership between the Health Careers Academy at Sequoia High School and Redwood City and Woodside CERT and the Fire Departments. Through this partnership we have been able to train and certify our students as Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) members. This training gives our students the knowledge and skills needed to become assets and not victims in the event of an emergency or disaster. Our students not only know how to put out small fires, evaluate and treat injuries, and safely perform search and rescue operations, but they also know how to prepare their households for potential disasters. Our CERT students even participate in running the school's disaster drills.

The students have identified the supplies and equipment needed for a personal go-bag (minimal supplies carried in a travel bag or backpack) as well as a family emergency kit. However, knowledge of these life-saving safety practices can only go so far. Many of our students are from low-income households. Stocking up on emergency supplies, like non-perishable protein bars, water, first aid supplies, or batteries, or purchasing smoke detectors or fire extinguishers may not be an option.

With help from some community partners in 2017, we were able to supply all 45 CERT trained 11th grade students in our academy with a small collection of supplies that can be the beginning of their family’s home emergency kit. We partnered with several local business, such as OSH, HD and RWC2020, and a couple private donors. The event, and the generosity of all our community partners, was covered in The Daily Journal and was recently mentioned again in Redwood City's Climate Magazine.

Building off of our success last year, we are setting our sites on putting Go-Bags in 42 new homes this year - with the idea of expanding to a larger group of students in the future. I was wondering if Stanford Health Care would be able to help with this project either in terms of financial help or by spreading this message to your network to see if any individuals or business owners would be able to contribute supplies or monetary donations. To be successful this year, we are aiming to raise $5000 to ensure each trained student's family home, and each neighborhood they live in, is a little bit safer in the event of an emergency. This year's event is scheduled for May 21st, and we hope to start procuring items immediately.